By TERRI VERMEULEN KEITH
A man accused of fatally shooting a Baldwin Park police officer and another man told a judge on Thursday, April 30, that he wants to plead guilty, despite his attorney entering a not guilty plea on his behalf.
“I want a speedy trial and I want to plead guilty,” Eduardo Roberto Medina-Berumen told Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mike Camacho, who reminded him that it is a “potential capital case.”
“I want to plead guilty,” the 23-year-old defendant again reiterated within moments after his attorney entered the not guilty plea.
The judge said he could not accept a guilty plea without a determination from the District Attorney’s Office on whether it wants to seek the death penalty against Medina-Berumen.
Deputy District Attorney David Ayvazian told the judge that he hopes to have that decision by the next court date on May 26 “considering we have a defendant who wants to plead guilty.”
Medina-Berumen — who remains jailed without bail — refused to waive his right to a speedy trial, saying he wanted it as soon as possible even though his attorney wanted to return to court in June.
The judge cautioned the defendant that “the stakes of this case are extremely high” and said that he didn’t want him to “make an ill-advised decision.”
Medina-Berumen is charged with two counts of murder stemming from the May 31, 2025, shooting that killed 35-year-old Officer Samuel Riveros — a nine-year department veteran, along with the shooting minutes earlier of 43-year-old Darius Wong, who was walking from his parked car after dropping off his wife, two young daughters and his sister-in-law at a housewarming party in the 4200 block of Filhurst Street in Baldwin Park.
The defendant is also charged with one count of possession of an assault rifle and two counts of attempted murder involving two other Baldwin Park police officers, including Officer Anthony Pimentel, who District Attorney Nathan Hochman has said was wounded when he was “hit by shards of glass that came from a bullet that we believe hit a windshield or a side windshield.”
The second officer named in the attempted murder charges, Alfredo Leal, could be heard saying in bodycam footage played in court during last month’s hearing, “Shots fired” and “He’s firing at units” before he ran toward the injured Pimentel.
Leal was responding to a call of a man unresponsive on a sidewalk when he found Wong in a pool of blood.
Other Baldwin Park police officers who subsequently arrived at the scene were involved in a “second volley” of gunfire in which “the suspect went down,” Sheriff Robert Luna has said. Medina-Berumen was injured in the gun battle.
During a June 2025 hearing, Deputy District Attorney Michael Michelena said he believed that prosecutors can prove the defendant was standing outside his home with a rifle and “started firing indiscriminately.” Michelena said Wong was shot prior to the officers’ arrival.